Paper Title
Translation Technology Teaching: Why? How? What?
Abstract
The role that technology plays in translation education has been becoming more significant over the past decades. There is a growing body of literature on translation technology teaching that particularly envisages courses as embedded in a traditional translation curriculum. This paper aims to provide a review of prior research and consider the key questions raised in the previous studies on translation technology teaching: why translation technology teaching is important; what should be taught; and how it should be taught. It is found that the increasing importance of translation technology teaching is mainly due to the rapid growth in the need for translation technology in the expanding translation industry as well as the lack of training and knowledge of translation technology. While many courses are generally based on the pedagogical framework of competency-based training, it is suggested that integrating technologies more fully across the translator training curriculum may optimize its benefits for learners. In terms of pedagogy, a common approach is to combine lecture and lab format, where traditional lectures introduce theoretical concepts and lab work provides students with hands-on practice in using the tools. It is suggested that teachers need to establish an appropriate balance between teaching formats – “what” and “why” (lecture), and “how” (lab). In general, most studies have shown that learners’ perceptions of translation technology improve as they gain practical skills through practice. The paper provides pedagogical implications for translation technology teaching. It also discusses the initial development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and mobile application for translation technology learning.
Keywords - Mooc; Mobile Learning; Pedagogical Implications; Translation Technology Teaching and Learning; Translator Training